Posted on 08/24/2013 11:24:16 PM PDT by reaganaut
A Christian professor and evangelist said that after 30 years in the Mormon Church, she came to a unique realization the Bible is more accurate than the Book of Mormon, and God is bigger than the transcendent man worshipped by the "Latter day Saints" (LDS).
"I began to feel like somebody was pulling back the curtain in Oz," Lynn K. Wilder, associate professor of special education at Florida Gulf Coast University, former tenured professor at Brigham Young University, and author of Unveiling Grace: The Story of How We Found Our Way Out of The Mormon Church, told The Christian Post in a Monday interview. She contrasted the Mormon and Christian churches, unmasking LDS secrets polygamy, racism, and a fundamental distrust in the Word and Power of God.
When Wilder and her husband, Mike, searched for a church home following their marriage, they found most churches "boring and out of touch," she said. She had also been reading the Old Testament thoroughly and became convinced that "these must be latter days," since Israel had returned to its homeland.
Mormon missionaries knocked on her door, spoke about the "latter days," and welcomed the Wilders into a close-knit community. "They take you in, they love on you, they began to supplant my biological family," Wilder explained. Joining the church gave her and her husband a higher status in the college and church communities. In 1999, Brigham Young University offered her a job.
Upon moving to Utah, however, the professor recounted new discoveries the Mormon scriptures still preach racism and polygamy, despite LDS public denials. "The Bible doesn't teach that the mark of Cain was dark skin," she explained, "but the Book of Mormon does." She noted that the mark of Cain is in other Mormon scriptures, too, besides the Book of Mormon.
It wasn't until her son Micah left the Mormon Church, however, that Wilder considered questioning their doctrines, she said. Refusing to present him to the high council for excommunication, she and her husband sent him away, and he encouraged them to read the New Testament.
"Mormons believe that the Bible is often mistranslated and corrupt," the former BYU professor testified. Their scripture tells of a "great apostasy" following the death of the apostles, such that there was no true church until Joseph Smith founded Mormonism in 1830.
But when Wilder read the New Testament, she was mesmerized. "I became consumed with this God of love, the God of grace," she said, noting that Mormons believe in works-based salvation. According to the LDS church, your deeds get you into heaven, she explained, while "in Christianity, Christ did all the work on the cross."
The LDS church also teaches that Jesus failed to hold His church together, the professor noted. She quoted Joseph Smith's History of the Church, where the Mormon founder wrote, "I have more to boast of than any man had. I am the only man who has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam .Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it."
Wilder said she believed that God is strong enough to keep His church together and to preserve the message in the Bible. In Mormonism, however, God is not omniscient or omnipotent, "he is a man, basically, who is continuing to progress and I can be on that same journey," she said.
The former BYU professor explained that, according to LDS doctrine, the best Mormons will proceed to become gods like the creator. Women can only achieve this if they are married, and only apostates those who reject the LDS church will go to hell with Satan and his minions. Even Hitler and murderers, by contrast, will reach the bottom level of heaven, she said.
The ex-Mormon recalled that, when she turned to Jesus, she began to see signs of the personal Biblical God (the Mormon God is not personal, she alleged) touching many aspects of her life. Her book tells the story of a picture of Christ that survived a burning building, and of a Billy Graham sermon lodged deep in her memory.
Wilder testified that a buyer showed up at her house the day after she and her husband had decided to withdraw from the Mormon Church, and a college dean offered her a job for which she had never applied. "Christianity is wonderful because of God," she said. "He's created for all of us a new family, a new life, and the most amazing trust in Him because of what we watched Him do."
In addition to teaching, she and her husband run a ministry dedicated to "helping Mormons understand a bigger God, trust the Bible, and give a different Jesus a chance." She said they aim to reach the thousands of Mormons who left the LDS church often to revert into Atheism or Agnosticism.
Weird.
There is no vitriol against mormons, there is great exposure of mormonISM, it is sad you are apparently are unable to see the difference.
No need to respond, I do not speak to self identified demons, as you have done.
When I said “Anyone else know about this?” I meant what some (generic) Christians believe about Noah’s son Ham and his curse. Have really heard other Christians say this and was not referring to Mormons.
Was asking if other FReepers had heard it and it appears some have.
Very good analysis of Joseph Smith’s words - demonic driven.
I wasn’t doubting you, but I was just trying to point out another silliness of their faith.
A good example was when their “elders” tried to visit my folks house. My dad being a retired Army officer who served in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, listened to this elder for about 5 minutes at the door before he asked him how much combat experience he had ever been through and how dare they send some kid to preach to him under the guise of them being elders, as if they have some experiences that they can relate to their true elders...
Well, hiya Els.
Actually I’m Presbyterian, not the USA liberal type. The PCA type, similar to the Southern Presbyterian before they blended in to Presbyterian USA.
What Mitt Romney’s religious beliefs are , within reason, are not my concern as to repairing the economy.
I didn’t vote for him for religious inspiration.
I voted for him because I believe he is financially astute. Exactly what the Country needed/needs at the moment.
As to Mormons being liberal, stashing a year’s worth of food for emergencies doesn’t sound liberal to me. They are self-sufficiency advocates.
Giving to the needy is part of every Christian sect. As is witnessing, missionaries.
Abortion? I don’t know Mormon stance on it. The presidents that have been against it haven’t made any moves to change it, and couldn’t if they wanted to.
During the Primaries I swore I’d never vote for Romney. But as the election came closer and listening to him expound on his ideas for economic recovery I changed my mind.
Not only that but the President’s real power, judicial appointment loomed large in my mind. Plus getting the rank amateurs out of the White House.
There is likely no potential candidate that I’ll agree with 100%, even Sarah Palin or Ted Cruz.
Yes, Romney is liberal on some issues, Dubya had a liberal streak also. Didn’t affect my vote. Waay better than the alternative.
I know some here are so anti-Mormon they didn’t vote for Romney.
The Country thanks you. /s
(By this line of reasoning...Hillary could stay as liberal as she is; switch to the GoP...run for POTUS...and guess what? The Dems will ALWAYS run somebody to the left of the GoP as your "way better than the alternative" endorsement of Hillary would come in...)
Fact: Romney was way to the left of another Mass candidate...JFK...
If we're now voting for guys to the left of the Kennedy...count me out.
Mitt was pro-abortion to the very month he ran...beat Obama to socialized healthcare...etc.
It is of course a straw man to say, "There's no candidate in which I agree 100%"... as if that was THE call by truly conservative voters...Go ahead, Vinnie...PROVE IT that there was ANY great groundswell for "100% candidate agreements"...
Otherwise, put away this straw man...it's not very becoming for a truly conservative Presbyterian to toss out there.
(Oh, we didn't know that it doesn't phase you to vote for a guy who claims to be a literal "god-in-embryo" and would tell god to move over from his throne when he dies)
Does the God of the Presbyterians know that you endorse idolatry-worshipers...and just who was Romney supposed to turn for divine help ... which is indeed needed as POTUS? The Mormon god who was a man who worked his way up to godhood? That god?
A Jewish POTUS would at least likely turn to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob... A Mormon POTUS trusting in a Mormon god equates the voter electorate also trusting in such a god to deliver their wallets...
And that's economic idolatry...substituting your bank account as the sole focus of salvific delivery ... even if you have to call upon the Mormon gods to deliver you!
#1...Every blue state voter who didn't vote for Romney meant nothing...Obama would have won that state, anyway.
#2...Every FREEPER red state voter who didn't vote for Romney meant nothing...Romney wound up taking those states, anyway.
It really then only came down to the purple state voters.
Your carte blanche political condemnation doesn't hold political water.
Wardaddy, is there some consistency here?
I mean...anybody reading Jesus' words about the Pharisees thruout Matthew 23...or the end of John 8 where Jesus labels them "children of the devil"... might likewise accuse Jesus by saying, "Hey, Son of man, your vitriol toward Pharisees goes a bit more than worrying about their souls...I mean really...you have a funny way of showing you care."
Now why would Jesus need to speak the way He spoke to the Pharisees?
1. Truth is truth; it doesn't always need to be dressed up in euphemisms and obscurities...
2. Jesus comforted the afflicted; and afflicted the comfortable...and the Pharisees qualified for the latter.
3. Tough love is still loving...even if some are squeamish about exercising it...
4. Jesus told the Pharisees that they would traverse land & sea to make a proselyte convert "twice the son of hell" they were. You see, Wardaddy, showing you care is ALSO just as much about...
...future cultists
...as it is about its present-day membership...
Jesus -- as did Paul (see Acts 20:28-31) -- cared about those who would be devoured by what Paul called "savage wolves"...
Those you don't like people being referenced as "savage wolves" should stop pretending they won't lecture Paul about that language (Acts 20) when they get to heaven.
I assume he’s NOT Catholic!
Apparently, you really do know nothing about mormonISM and why they do what they do.
I did not support Romney because he is and has always been a liberal.
If you knew about mormonISM, and it appears that you do not know, there is a question as to why someone as you declare as astute would beleive in such a thing as momronISM.
There is no need to merely believe it, as lot’s of his ‘prophecies’ can be clearly shown as false.
Though some ‘religions’ have a lot more facts that can be checked to see if they are TRUE or not; it stills boils down to ‘faith’ somewhere along the line.
‘faith’ somewhere along the line.
Jesus told us what he would do and what we were to do, also Jesus, by his own words did not put no trust in religious leaders.
Jesus also must have not had too much trust in professors, he could easily have had a dozen of them but he chose Fishermen.
why do you think he chose ordinary working men instead of the schooled?
Sold 150 paintings during the last three days. A nice Sky Vodka with peach nectar on ice is now in my warm dry fist.
Whew!
I didn’t denounce I just stopped believing that day I first went to the temple at age 19 when I saw the same silly ceremonies that I had experienced as a frat boy when I went active in Sigma Alpha Epsilon at Utah State University.
I went on the mission anyway. Who in heaven wouldn’t go to Denmark for a two and a half year party with great beer and beautiful women?
I'm sure glad them sweet MORMONs have NO vitrol for anyone else!
Well; EXTRA things that 'christians' believe are all OVER the map!
I've found it a LOT easier to teach folks what's in the bible; than to UNteach them what AIN'T!
Back at ya! ;^)
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